If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

8 or 9 for me. I've probably been leaning more to 9 since retiring .... I've always been optimistic though.

Same here.
Life is pretty rosy right now. Interestingly, I felt a slight and permanent downward shift in menopause which bumped me from a 9 to an 8. It was eerie, and makes me think that hormones have something to do with levels. My father was an especially sunny person so it does make sense that genetics plays a part.

I have a very good friend who hovers around a 4-5 and both she and her mother take medication for depression. Even with meds she's always on the anxious, glass half-full side.

Same here.
Life is pretty rosy right now. Interestingly, I felt a slight and permanent downward shift in menopause which bumped me from a 9 to an 8. It was eerie, and makes me think that hormones have something to do with levels. My father was an especially sunny person so it does make sense that genetics plays a part.

I have a very good friend who hovers around a 4-5 and both she and her mother take medication for depression. Even with meds she's always on the anxious, glass half-full side.

Yes! I also experienced a 1+ drop in general contentedness/happiness after menopause. The highs of joy are not so high, also.

But something else that affects my scale by at least 1 point is my weight. Gain 20 lbs, go down a point. That is most likely due to inactivity and lack of endorphines, but I sure notice it.

Circling back to post menopause brain health, some famous person likened her own female post menopause state to that more like men have. She said that prior to menopause, her feelings were like a boat in a stormy sea, something up and happy on high points of the waves and sometimes deep it its swells.

now, her life is more like a steady, strong boat on a calm sea. She imagines that is how many/most men feel.

I don’t think I can give happy a number. I am more content than happy. I think of happy as a mood that comes and goes depending on circumstances but contentment as a state of being. I am definitely a positive, see the best in everything type of person and I am happy a lot of the time but content in all things at all times.

My Dad was a happy guy and I take after him. At 50 I was diagnosed with 3 chronic health conditions but I didnít let this steal my happiness. It is just life. I expect good things to happen and always look on the bright side of things. I might be a ten if I quit reading and watching the news because all of the social injustice happened, school shootings and politics does wear me down.

Describe your optimism to me. What does it feel like? What sort of inner monologues do you have, if any?

I want to be honest UL. I havenít explored the depts of inner contentedness and I donít want anyone to get the notion that my 10 means Iím a cheery bloke with a donít worry be happy attitude. My ďhappinessĒ is a direct result of good fortune and dumb luck. When I swing my legs out of bed in the morning and put my feet on the rug, I wiggle my toes and I smile. Every single damn morning.

It feels like staying up on your bike for the first time without anyone holding on, it feels like catching your first brook trout, it feels like holding your first puppy, it feels like your flight instructor signing off on your pilots license......itís exactly the opposite of standing at a cold stainless steel table where the body of a State Trooper lies waiting to be autopsied, the opposite of attending the funeral of your fourteen year old nephew, nothing like receiving the news of your fatherís sudden death and mercifully unlike laying on your back not knowing if youíll ever walk again.

I havenít found any inner speak that is magic.....the only thing that works for me is silence. In silence, I get guidance.

WS: reading your description about how you feel in the morning reminds me of how my Maltese Josie was. She came to our house at 10 yo a broken little soul. She spent all her life living in a cage as a puppy mill breeder. She was also deaf. She would lay in a corner trying to be invisible. We put a bed in that corner. You couldn’t touch her, carry her, etc. Every night after work we took turns talking and petting her and showing love. It took 2 years to socialize her. Then one day she wakes us up by running around the bed barking her little head off. She was announcing the new day. She did this for 10 years despite having many health issues. About a week before she died she quit announcing the day and I knew it was time to help her leave. We had her joy for 10 years. Hope you don’t mind being compared to a dog)

WS: reading your description about how you feel in the morning reminds me of how my Maltese Josie was. She came to our house at 10 yo a broken little soul. She spent all her life living in a cage as a puppy mill breeder. She was also deaf. She would lay in a corner trying to be invisible. We put a bed in that corner. You couldn’t touch her, carry her, etc. Every night after work we took turns talking and petting her and showing love. It took 2 years to socialize her. Then one day she wakes us up by running around the bed barking her little head off. She was announcing the new day. She did this for 10 years despite having many health issues. About a week before she died she quit announcing the day and I knew it was time to help her leave. We had her joy for 10 years. Hope you don’t mind being compared to a dog)

Right now I'd say a 5 to 6. I've been a 1 before, too. I'd be an 8 or 9 if my relationship with my daughter was, well, IF it existed. The deal with her has me totally despondent (1 to 2-ish) if I think about it enough. But with therapy, I've been able to heal to where I can enjoy life to the point of a 6. Days I don't think about her situation, I live in an 8 to 9 world.

My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already!

Oh such stability! Of course my mental issue is not around stability so what can I say, I range a lot through the numbers. Often the higher numbers are more about a pending mania.

I tend to more than a 5, a 6 on a regular basis is very good. More than that all the time and I think I am tempting the fates. Basically I work REALLY hard to get to where I am at, really hard at knowing this is my brain chemistry and not to take it personally when it is low.